A poultry factory will typically comprise a preparation system and a processing system. Whole birds will be delivered to the preparation system and typically slaughtered, de-feathered, de-boned and eviscerated. The prepared birds, or “grillers”, are then cut into desired portions and packaged in the processing system. Portions include, among others, breast fillet, legs, drums, thighs and wings.
Poultry is typically packaged in batches, for example, 500 g packs of thighs or 900 g packs of whole legs. The portions from the processing system are firstly fed into an automated weigher that weighs out the desired batches. The weighed batches are then packed by manual operators or automated robotics into containers which are subsequently sealed, labelled and checked before being distributed to the desired outlet, such as a supermarket.
However, in some instances it may not be possible to provide the correct weight batches within a pre-set tolerance. For example, the 900 g batches of whole legs may need to be comprised of four individual legs. If the legs from the particular birds processed in the processing system are mathematically too large or too small to be packaged, then it will be difficult to make up the 900 g required with four legs. This is a particular problem with batches made up of small numbers of individual portions, as variations in portion size have a greater influence on the weight of the batch. Food portions that cannot be made up to a correct batch weight are typically sold off cheaply as “bulk”. Alternatively, batches may be sold “overweight”, where, for example, a whole “large” chicken may be sold as a “medium” chicken. Another example of batches being sold “overweight” is a 900 g pack containing 1000 g of product, thus “giving away” 100 g to the consumer. Both of these scenarios are inefficient and increase giveaway. Additionally, consumers demand accurate labelling and weights of food product.
What is needed in the art is a means to optimise the output of food product from a food packaging system, in particular minimising giveaway of food product when producing batch sizes.